Obama official: Yes, Benghazi was a terrorist attack and there are “indications” Al Qaeda was involved; Update: Ringleader released from Gitmo in 2007?

posted at 7:31 pm on September 19, 2012 by Allahpundit

So here’s where we’re at after a week of inane White House spin. Until yesterday, the official line was that this attack — which involved heavy weapons — just might have been a spontaneous protest over the Mohammed YouTube video that got way, way out of control. Certainly it wasn’t anything organized or foreseeable or else the Foreign Policy President would have been on it. Then, yesterday, Carney finally bowed to reality and acknowledged that bona fide terrorists might have exploited a protest to launch an attack. Still spontaneous, though. Nothing pre-planned.

We’re still on that talking point as of 6 p.m., but now there’s a lot more meat on the bone with respect to who those bona fide terrorists might be. I figure by late Thursday or early Friday, they’ll finally go the whole nine yards and admit that, yeah, the people responsible might have had a thought or two about doing something like this before they acted.

“I would say yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” Matt Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, in response to questioning from Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) about the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans…

“We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates; in particular, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,” he said.

The U.S. government just isn’t sure yet whether the terrorist attack was pre-planned or whether it was an example of terrorists taking advantage of protests against an anti-Islam film, Olsen said.

“It appears that individuals who were certainly well-armed seized on the opportunity presented as the events unfolded that evening and into the morning hours of September 12th. We do know that a number of militants in the area, as I mentioned, are well-armed and maintain those arms. What we don’t have at this point is specific intelligence that there was a significant advanced planning or coordination for this attack,” he said.

Question: Why are we still focused on the question of whether the attack was “pre-planned” or “spontaneous” if we have good reason to think Al Qaeda was involved? It’s not like U.S. intelligence didn’t know that there are expert jihadis in the area; on the contrary, Benghazi is one of the jihadi-est places on Earth and has been so for years. Whether a group of mujahedeen sketched out an assault on the consulate in advance or whether they got wind of the protest and raced down to the building with guns blazing, the point here is that (a) there are a lot of them in the area, (b) they have plenty of weapons, (c) both of those facts are well known to the CIA and State Department, and yet (d) the consulate was nonetheless left without any serious security. Try to wrap your mind around the fact that Obama and his State Department left the building so vulnerable that it’s actually possible that a spontaneous attack from Al Qaeda was able to breach the walls and take the life of the U.S. ambassador. The White House is trying to use this somehow as a point in its own defense. Why?

Tapper followed up: “Who made the decision that there should not be any Marines at our diplomatic posts in Libya? More than half of our diplomatic posts have Marines. I understand they’re not there to protect people. They’re there to protect classified data but it doesn’t hurt to have them there. Who made the decision?”

Carney responded: “I think security at diplomatic facilities is overseen by and run by the State Department, so I’d refer you to them about how decisions are made and what the allocation of resources was in Benghazi and elsewhere. I think they’re the best people to answer that question.”

If you want to know what happened at Benghazi, ask State. But State won’t talk about it, so ask the FBI. But the FBI can’t talk about it because it’s an ongoing investigation. Perfection.

Update: Now that there’s a “blame Bush” angle to this story, maybe the White House can finally admit that, yes, this whole thing was orchestrated by a hardened jihadi capo.

Sufyan Ben Qumu is thought to have been involved and even may have led the attack, Fox News’ intelligence sources said. Qumu, a Libyan, was released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2007 and transferred into Libyan custody on the condition he be kept in jail. His Guantanamo files also show he has ties to the financiers behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Here’s an NYT story on Qumu from 2011, back when he was a “freedom fighter” helping the United States and its western allies to oust Qaddafi.

He was a tank driver in the Libyan Army in the 1980s, when the Central Intelligence Agency was spending billions to support religious militants trying to drive Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. Mr. Qumu moved to Afghanistan in the early 1990s, just as Osama bin Laden and other former mujahedeen were violently turning against their former benefactor, the United States.

He was captured in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, accused of being a member of the militant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and sent to Guantánamo — in part because of information provided by Colonel Qaddafi’s government.

“The Libyan Government considers detainee a ‘dangerous man with no qualms about committing terrorist acts,’ ” says the classified 2005 assessment, evidently quoting Libyan intelligence findings, which was obtained by The New York Times.

Very much worth noting, though: Counterterror expert Aaron Zelin seems to think this is a case of mistaken identity. Qumu’s group is Ansar al-Sharia, based in Dernah. The group suspected in the consulate attack is Katibah Ansar al-Sharia, based in Benghazi. Someone may have heard “Ansar al-Sharia” and made the assumption that it was Qumu’s group, not the Benghazi one, that led the assault. Just something to note as reporters begin to chase this angle.

Update: Careless error on my part: I misidentified Joe Pounder in the post above. Now corrected. Sorry about that.

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Yeah the Blame Bush media/left machine will go into overdrive if this is the guy but it should be thrown in their faces with extreme prejudice that the left/Dems and the courts were doing a full court press with lawsuits to get many of the Gitmo detainees released -the Bush administration was forced to release a lot of these terrorist cretins by the Dem/left hive.

Question: Why are we still focused on the question of whether the attack was “pre-planned” or “spontaneous” if we have good reason to think Al Qaeda was involved?

Because “spontaneous” furthers the “it was the result of some ‘vile, despicable video’ made by a Christian in America and we have to censor our speech so as to be tolerant of ‘other religions’” meme, silly!

“Incitement” and “spontaneity” go together like PB&J.

“Pre-planned & RPGs” and “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims”? Not so much.

Heavy weapons have to be planned to be used effectively. That planning takes expertise. Employing heavy weapons is a high level infantry skill. Employing heavy weapons effectively is a higher level infantry skill. Employing heavy weapons effectively and coordinating with a simultaneous assault force is very high level infantry skill.

President Bush yesterday promised to abide by a court ruling on whether Guantanamo Bay prisoners should receive civilian trials, although he warned they might resume attacks on Americans if released.

“Make no mistake,” Mr. Bush said in an East Room press conference with European Union officials. “Many of those folks being detained — in humane conditions, I might add — are dangerous people.

“Some have been released to their previous countries, and they got out and they went on to the battlefield again,” he said. “I have an obligation, as do all of us who are holding office, to protect our people.”

First, let me get this out of the way: AP, your coverage of all these events over the course of the past week has been the best on the web by far. Well done, and thank you for all the digging and all the links. It really helps when talking to others.

More to the point, think about what the Press and the Administration was WILLING to push as the main story: Not that we had an Ambassador murdered along with three others, not that we had a consult burned, not that we had several embassies stormed, not that Clinton failed to provide proper security for our Ambassadors, not that Obama failed to go to his security briefings days prior to the attack, and not that the Administration failed to act on intelligence that AQ would hit us on 9/11. NOPE what the media focused on was Romney’s bad timing when sticking up for our First Amendment!!! And then the Administration allowed for the scapegoating of a US citizen to get to the point where he was hauled away by LA police. If we weren’t a little over a month away from tossing these disgusting people in the Administration out of power, I’d be demanding that we impeach these tools.

Until yesterday, the official line was that this attack — which involved heavy weapons — just might have been a spontaneous protest over the Mohammed YouTube video that got way, way out of control

.

This is what has bugged me the most. All the lies as if the terrorist attack on the Consulate at Benghazi wasn’t all that much different than some Spring Break party at a Daytona Beach motel.

Even now the administration is not being honest or walking away from the worst of the lies. There is video out there that proves Ambassador Chris Stevens was not rushed to the hospital by caring and loving Libyans. At least not until the animals that attacked him and the other three spent hours sodomizing, torturing, and killing them. Why can’t the White House be honest about that? Why can’t they explain why partisan whore Valarie Jarrett has a bigger security detail than that accompanying Ambassador Stevens to the Consulate? Jay Carney must have been damned desperate from getting away from Joe Biden to take on the soul-crushing job of being Obama’s press secretary. But who am I kidding, Carney is a professional journalist. He has no soul.

“It appears that individuals who were certainly well-armed seized on the opportunity presented as the events unfolded that evening and into the morning hours of September 12th. We do know that a number of militants in the area, as I mentioned, are well-armed and maintain those arms.

So WHO armed them ?
McCain you wanna answer that ? What do you say Hillary ? Bidenullah ?

Was this guy not released to a different Libyan government than we have now?

earlgrey133 on September 19, 2012 at 7:39 PM

Timeline needs to be sorted out, but yes, he would have been released to a Lybian government that was cooperating with the USA at that time. So did he escape early, was he let go by a more sympathetic rebel government, did the prison he was in fall apart when Qhudaphi’s regime fell apart, was he let go by Khaddafi to cause general mayhem during the rebellion, etc, etc.

Trick question! It can be hinted that this was a host nation failure. Of course, out of concern that we would embarrass that “fledgling democracy,” the administration would not say more than that and make assurances that the whole matter was being investigated so that it will not happen again.

State is filled with America-loathing commies. I’m hoping President Romney will appoint Bolton SECSTATE with a two-word set of marching orders. Clean house. There are plenty of hard-working honest people at State but when you look at the highest levels both political appointees and career civil service you see a bunch of tepid patriots.

Alexander Haig had a great bit when meeting a new ambassador. He’d take him over to the giant globe in his office and ask that he point out their country. Invariably, they would interpret the question as one of asking about their posting. Haig would then point out that the US was “their” country and they merely represent American interests abroad.

…I would like Ms. Rice to go on at least 5 television stations in one morning this week…(so the networks don’t let JugEars down)…and talk about the video again…. so the news hosts can keep shaking their head affirmatively.

this ambassador had 2 dudes, at least one of whom was a prior Navy SEAL. This assault force had to hit with such a fury that it kept them from escaping or incapacitated them outright. A Navy SEAL is going to have an innate sense of “Hey sir, let’s get the f*ck outta here, backdoor style, and yes, you’re carrying this pistol.”

these men had no idea this was coming—warning or not. If they were warned, they would NOT have been sitting out there with their d!cks in their hands while this force crashed down on them.

Did GWB want to release inmates from Gitmo or was he under pressure to do so by the many lawsuits from the lefties, ACLU, Amnesty International and the usual suspects?

bayview on September 19, 2012 at 7:56 PM

All of the above plus the fact that Gitmo was never designed to be a place of indefinite detention for everyone held there. The problem became how to release/transfer those being held there when they no longer had intelligence value. Sending these individuals back to where they came has been a muddled failure. But there are few alternatives.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005
President Bush yesterday promised to abide by a court ruling on whether Guantanamo Bay prisoners should receive civilian trials, although he warned they might resume attacks on Americans if released.

“Make no mistake,” Mr. Bush said in an East Room press conference with European Union officials. “Many of those folks being detained — in humane conditions, I might add — are dangerous people.

“Some have been released to their previous countries, and they got out and they went on to the battlefield again,” he said. “I have an obligation, as do all of us who are holding office, to protect our people.”

To that end, Mr. Bush said he will not release Guantanamo Bay prisoners such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, whom he called “the mastermind of the September the 11th attack,” anytime soon.

“He is being detained because we think he could possibly give us information that might not only protect us, but protect citizens in Europe,” he said. “And at some point in time, he’ll be dealt with, but right now, we think it’s best that he be kept in custody.”

The president indicated that less-dangerous prisoners might have their cases adjudicated soon.

“We’re now waiting for a federal court to decide whether or not they can be tried in a military court, where they’ll have rights, of course, or in the civilian courts,” he said. “When the courts make the decision they make, we’ll act accordingly.”

But the administration prefers military courts, in part because Mr. Bush regards terrorism as an act of war, not a criminal offense.

“We went and set up the military commissions, where these detainees would have full and vigorous representation by defense counsel for those who were suspected of committing war crimes,” said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

“Those commissions have temporarily been suspended, pending further review by the federal courts,” he said. “And that’s where it stands at this point.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush urged journalists to visit Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in order to witness firsthand the humane treatment of prisoners by U.S. forces.

“They’ll be treated in accord with the Geneva Convention,” he said. “There’s 24-hour inspections by the International Red Cross.”

The president also issued a guardedly optimistic assessment of the ongoing struggle between U.S. forces and the insurgency in Iraq.

“I spoke to our commanders today,” Mr. Bush said. “And the report from the field is that while it’s tough, more and more Iraqis are becoming battle-hardened and trained to defend themselves.

“And that’s exactly the strategy that’s going to work. And it is going to work.”

<strong</The Obama admin lied 4 people died.No news organization not even Fox is calling them on this.Obama went on Letterman last night and said he did not know want the debt was and shot term it was not a problem.Rush and a few others out there are telling the people the truth and what do they get for it absolute hate .Not from the dems but from so called Rep.Like Rush says the inside the beltway fools think this is a game and just another election.They have no concept about the real danger this country is in.It,s one thing for this lying pack of scum to fool NBC CBS and the rest of their lapdog media but to fool and scare the so called people on our side is just plain sicken.other than Allen West ,Jim Demint and a few others name me any so called Conservative politician who you have seen on TV taking it to Obama.To hell with the country as long as they can get their chairmanships and not rock the boat and have the NYT write bad stories about them and loose their invite to the best parties in DC.Today i read that Sen Luger thinks the country can not survive with out his leadership in DC and think the people in Indiana are fools for not sending him and his great mind back for another term.GOD help us for we as a people have sit back on our asses and let this happen.

“I would say yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” Matt Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, in response to questioning from Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) about the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans…

First, it was an attack on a ‘Consulate’, in Benghazi. There is only one US ‘Embassy’ in a foreign country, located in the country’s capital, the rest of the outposts in that country are called ‘Consulates.’ But, at least he got the rest right, or maybe not, since it’s more likely that the attack had been planned first and not as an adjunct to the protest over the YouTube crapola.

Second, and I’m not sure whether these questions were asked today of Olsen but:

Why was the Ambassador there in the first place, one of the most dangerous shit holes in the world, full of AQ?

Why was he traveling in a vehicle that was a common car and not a bullet-proofed SUV, the regular means of ground transport in almost any country?

Why was there not a security advance team of any kind, the normal procedure whenever an Ambassador travels in any country, much less a war-torn one in the ME?

Why was his ‘security’ comprised of two SEALs — whose job description does not include VIP protection but far more covert activities?

Why was there no team of Marines stationed there, whose job descriptions do include protection of the Ambassador?

The death of these four Americans or at the hands of AQ, most likely, but the Obama administration could’ve prevented it. This needs to be blasted from the rooftops.

And, remember, Benghazi is like Al Qaeda Central. Most of the AQ/foreign fighters in Iraq came from Benghazi.

This was no state secret either when the Obama administration and McLame decided to rush into “save the poor people of Benghazi,” as though they were just peace lovers living under the oppression of the tablecloth-wearing, Jocelyn Wilderstein-separated-at-birth, Lypsynka of Libya’s regime.

We had seven 9-11 anniversaries under Bush , and NOTHING like this ever happened . Threat levels used to go up, security used to be tightened, Olby used to have a meltdown over it ,
but
Americans used to be alive and safe.

“I think security at diplomatic facilities is overseen by and run by the State Department, so I’d refer you to them about how decisions are made and what the allocation of resources was in Benghazi and elsewhere. I think they’re the best people to answer that question.”

So I guess that means Obama hasn’t thought to ask that question of his Secretary of State yet, right?

Funny how all the stupid, ridiculous, asinine, fatal decisions in this Administration are always, always made by some flunky wrapped in layers of bureaucracy and hermetically sealed away from anybody else allowing absolutely no information to escape.

O/T I was canvassing a neighborhood for Richard Mourdock and ran into possibly the angriest, bitterest liberal I have ever seen.

esr1951 on September 19, 2012 at 7:57 PM

Considering that the Smartest Man in the History of Civilisation has fixed the economy, made the world love us again, lowered the sea levels, and is, evidently, a lock for reelection, one wonders why Liberals are so angry and bitter?

BTW, Obama has ditched just reading the daily briefings on his iPad.
He’ll NOW have face-to-face meetings !!

pambi on September 19, 2012 at 8:03 PM

Let me guess, they’ll occur when he rolls into the office at noon.

Reading intelligence briefings is not the same thing as being in the room with people who can answer questions about them (or are able to reach out to those who can).

And make no mistake, this is campaign 2012 optics and nothing more. These face-to-face meetings will be infrequent and disappear entirely once the public moves on and doesn’t think that the rat-eared bastard’s administration killed four by being too lax. I still want to know why Valarie Jarrett has a bigger security detail than Chris Stevens did. Is she really under that much of a threat or is it an ego thing? Does State really care about the safety of diplomatic personnel or was a minimal security detail deemed the most politically correct so as not to leave the impression that our ambassador to Libya couldn’t be protected by the animals that ultimately betrayed his location and caused his torture/sodomization/death?

The threat to the American Embassy was posted on the internet in the Middle East AND in the United States BEFORE the 11th and the stated reason was the demand for the immediate release of the Blind Sheik and certain prisoners at Gitmo.

I READ ABOUT IT ON THE 10TH AND I DON’T WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT OR IN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY.

He called the rebels “patriots” with no links to al-Qaida, in contrast to what some critics have suggested, and he said they should receive Gadhafi assets frozen by other countries………
……..At a news conference in the rebels’ stronghold of Benghazi ini eastern Libya, McCain said he did not believe that the United States should send in ground troops, but it should be much more involved in the air campaign and “facilitate” the arming and training of the rebels — much as it armed the mujahedeen who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s…….

Wow. Lead story on Drudge. Two of the murdered former SEALS were not part of the security detail protecting Stevens, but were contractors with security-related tasks. They stepped up when the attack occurred and were killed when they voluntarily took up arms to defend the staff.

He spat nails at us. Mr Mourdock was the silliest candidate to come out of Indiana… Mr Mourdock would not collaborate and talk to the other side…etc. Apparently the angry, bitter liberal was unable to see the irony in the fact that we found it impossible to converse with him…that if liberals in congress are like him, then no wonder our side can’t collaborate.

If Hillary at least offered her resignation I could dredge up some residue of respect for her.

spiritof61 on September 19, 2012 at 8:17 PM

Can’t be done. This would imply that Obama has a foreign affairs problem. Less than two months ahead of an election.

I still think the economy and jobs are bigger drivers this year but this is that “something else” that will sway some voters. That’s why the administration spent an entire week spinning this as one of those things that happen when a bunch of wild and crazy Libyans get together will too much emotion and heavy weaponry. That they are walking back the lies of the past week only tells me that their PR campaign has not worked and they have to do some fessing up to the truth.

You heard it here first. What I think they’re going to find is that the Ambassador and company were killed with some of the weapons we provided the rebels during Obama’s self-declared war on the leadership of Libya. Thus, the Administration’s efforts to make it look like a ‘spontaneous’ event resulting from a YouTube video. Well, now that the bloom’s off that rose, I’m just hoping we can find this out before the election. That, plus the fact that an Ambassador was sent or allowed to travel into such a dangerous place, virtually unprotected, will be the Undoing of Obama.

And speaking of Huda the Executioner, what do we suppose became of all of those in Benghazi who collaborated with her secretly? Those who shared in the wealth and did her bidding, but slipped away, off the radar, out of sight out of mind, when she left to join Gadaffi?

How many of them have affiliated themselves with the Gadaffi supporters and Al Quaeda who are running rampant in the region today?

Some of these people would have been lower level bureaucrats. It begs the question: did they manage to get themselves placed in the current regime? Were they complicit in the attack on the consulate? Perhaps directing those attacking, providing information about consulate emergency contingency protocols?

Two of the murdered former SEALS were not part of the security detail protecting Stevens, but were contractors with security-related tasks. They stepped up when the attack occurred and were killed when they voluntarily took up arms to defend the staff.

Philly on September 19, 2012 at 8:21 PM

Makes sense that this would be their inclination but even more damning of the rat-eared bastard’s administration. My guess is that they will infer that it somehow was Ambassador Stevens’ fault for not being more concerned about safety. There may even be some truth in that allegation. But the fact of the matter is that any US government facility in a foreign nation needs to prepare for contingincies up to and including massive assault by individuals with things like rocket grenade launchers.

I work in DC in an office with blast-proof windows because of the federal agency with space in the building. The consulate in Benghazi didn’t have such precautions.